Court turns down appeal of human rights defender Aleh Hulak

The head of the
human rights organization "Belarusian Helsinki Committee" Aleh Hulak
insisted that the court recognized as illegal the actions of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice as a result of which he was
prohibited to leave the country. Representatives
of the ministries didn’t recognize the complaint and asked the court not to
grant it.

During
the court debates floor was taken by Aleh Hulak, his representative – human
rights activist Hary Pahaniaila, a representative of the Ministry of Justice
who didn’t introduce himself and a representative of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs Aliaksei Biahun, head of the Department of Citizenship and Migration
Department.

Before
the court debate, the representative of the Ministry of Justice Viktar Zelau
presented the court with two references, and the representative of the Ministry
of Internal Affairs provided information about the correction of the “technical
failure” in the information system database.

Aliaksei
Biahun said it was proprietary information and asked the court not to disclose
it. As
a result, only the judge, Aleh Hulak and his representative were familiarized
with it.

Aleh
Hulak said that all evidence was presented that the authorities illegally
placed him in the database, and limited his right to leave. He
noted that although the court could not determine exactly who did it, but even
the Ministry of the Interior acknowledged that it was done.

Mr.
Hulak said that that there were no legal reasons to restrict his right to travel
was not, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice shall
be responsible for their actions. The
BHC chairman also stated that the error wasn’t fixed in a reasonable time and
he spent 5 months before his surname was deleted from the database.

According to the human rights defender, it was done for discriminatory reasons.
He
stated that another 17 people who are known for their political opposition
activities, human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, were also included
in this list because of the “technical failure”.

He proposed to attach the list of the 17 persons who have been banned from
traveling abroad to the case materials. However, the judge refused to do it
because of objections of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of
Justice.

Human
rights activist Hary Pahaniaila noted that the fact that Aleh Hulak had been
put in the database of restricted to travel abroad and then was deleted from
this database was legally established, which is admitted by the Ministry of
Justice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Thus, he considered that the
guilt of these agencies was proved and asked the court to grant Hulak’s claim
against them.

After this, short speeches were delivered by representatives of the ministries.
The representative of the Ministry of Justice stated that if Mr. Hulak had been
put on the list of those who were banned to travel abroad he wouldn’t have been
deleted from it. The representative of the Ministry of Justice, in its turn,
denied that the Ministry had provided any information about Aleh Hulak and that
it had any database of opposition politicians.

Aliaksei
Biahun confessed during the debate that there was a “technical failure”, after
which Aleh Hulak was included in the database of the people who were temporary
prohibited to leave the country. According to Biahun, there are about 100 000
people in this list and only 50 were included in it by mistake, which allegedly
witnesses the effectiveness of the system. The representative of the Ministry
of Internal Affairs stated that as a result of complaints Aleh Hulak had been deleted
from the database. Thanks to it the system has been repaired and works properly.